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Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God (PS Vita) Review

 
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SRG-Socery-Saga
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At a Glance...
 

Formats: PS Vita
 
Year: ,
 
Publisher:
 
Developer:
 
Final Score
6.0
6/ 10


User Rating
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We liked?


Roguelike gameplay finally comes to the Vita in this cute game.

Not so much?


Various gameplay elements add a frustrating level of difficulty to an already tough genre


Final Fiendish Findings?

Sorcery Saga may start out as a simple, fun roguelike, but once it gets you hooked, it ramps up the difficulty to the point where the fun of a hard challenge starts to pale against the frustration of yet another stupid or unfortunate death. If you have the patience and perseverance to get right back up after these setbacks, you’ll probably enjoy Sorcery Saga. Otherwise, you might want to give it a miss.

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Posted April 2, 2014 by

 
Full Fiendish Findings...
 
 

When Pupuru returns from her graduation test with a book of curry recipes instead of a magical artefact, she is suspended from Magic Academy. As it turns out, however, the book might be just what she needs, for it contains a recipe for a legendary curry that might just stop her friend’s restaurant from going out of business. Now it’s up to Pupuru to venture into perilous dungeons and defeat arcane guardians if she is to bring back all the necessary ingredients to cook the world’s most delicious curry.

Roguelike games are possible the geekiest and most hardcore of the RPG genre, forcing you to tackle floor upon floor of monster-infested randomly generated dungeons, accompanied by the terrifying knowledge that if you die, it’s back to the beginning for you. It’s a subgenre you might associate more with ASCII graphics played by dedicated players on their UNIX boxes, but over the years, Japan has been making sure we can get our roguelike action on consoles and handheld systems too. Sorcery Saga brings the roguelike to the PS Vita, but is it an adventure worth sinking your teeth into?

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As you get started, Sorcery Saga seems like a pretty straightforward experience. You take on the role of Pupuru, a trainee mage conquering dungeons in search of curry ingredients (no, really). Also along for the ride is your AI-controlled pet Kuu, who will move around and attack enemies on your behalf. Unfortunately, Kuu is much a hindrance as he is a help – if you don’t feed him regularly, his calls of hunger will attract enemies, and if he passes out completely, you won’t be able to proceed to the next floor or take your equipment back to town. Worse yet, not all of the items in your inventory will heal Kuu – some of them will actually damage him, and there’s no way of knowing which is which until you give it a try.

Nonetheless, both the tutorial levels and the first dungeon are easy enough to lull you into a false sense of security. The rest of the game only consists of four more dungeons, but as soon as you set foot in the second proper dungeon of the game, you’ll realise that the task ahead is far from simple. In a genre that’s far from easy, Sorcery Saga has a couple of extra tricks up its sleeve. You might be prepared for poison, aggressive enemy ambushes and cursed weapons, but what about floors where you can’t use skills and items? Or, worst of all, floors where enemies can make two moves for every one of yours, allowing them to annihilate even the most cautious player in short order. And don’t think you can just level up in an easier dungeon and try again – every time either victory or defeat sends you back to down, you’ll be reset to level one. Fine, you think, I’ll just take it slow and level up as I go; be warned, however, if you hang around too long on a single floor, not only will you overpowered monsters start appearing, but the dungeon itself might begin to collapse. And don’t think you can reload your save if you die, as the game will auto-save before it sends you back to town.

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So, then, what can an aspiring adventurer do to ensure their survival? You can’t retain your levels when you leave a dungeon, but with careful planning, you can at least set aside some decent weapons and armour. Sadly, the game does occasionally seem to glitch and lose your equipment upon reloading a save, something which just adds insult to injury.

The other weapon in your arsenal is your ability to cook curry on the go from ingredients you find in dungeons. Whip up a curry and eat it, and suddenly you’ll find all your stats boosted – perfect for fighting a boss. It’s not a failsafe plan, though, as more often than not you’ll end up with a useless cursed curry instead.

As you might imagine from the relative importance in Sorcery Saga, the story is hardly the most complex or serious you’ve ever encountered. There are a wealth of over-the-top minor characters, and in general the whole thing is very silly and stupid – so much so that you’ll probably just end up tuning out.

Visually, Sorcery Saga has a simple and clean look; character designs are cute and appealing, but the graphics are far from pushing the envelope of what the Vita can do. Nonetheless, they do the job, although despite their apparent simplicity, the game still slows down when there are a lot of enemies on screen. Background music is catchy and pleasant whilst in-play, but swiftly forgettable as soon as you switch off.

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Final Thoughts

Sorcery Saga may start out as a simple, fun roguelike, but once it gets you hooked, it ramps up the difficulty to the point where the fun of a hard challenge starts to pale against the frustration of yet another stupid or unfortunate death. If you have the patience and perseverance to get right back up after these setbacks, you’ll probably enjoy Sorcery Saga. Otherwise, you might want to give it a miss.


Jo

 


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